[brian]

State and federal disease investigators are tracking a disturbing increase in deaths among children stricken simultaneously with the flu and a hard-to-treat, fast-moving bacterial germ.

Massachusetts health authorities have linked two recent childhood flu deaths to a germ called methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, known as MRSA, which evades the most common antibiotics. Nationally, of the 74 children known to have died from the flu in the United States in 2006-2007, 22 also had staph infections, most of which were MRSA.

Authorities at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are so concerned by the phenomenon that next flu season they will activate a monitoring network at five sites - including one in Rochester, N.Y. - to hunt for patients co-infected with flu and MRSA. Specialists said that information and other findings could guide doctors to determine how to quickly intervene, preventing flu-MRSA cases from turning fatal.

Full Story: http://www.boston.com/news/local/art...ld_flu_deaths/

[oramar]

So that means there is now even more reason to seek medical attention when you have the flu, especially children.